PRAGUE, May 28 — The Czech Republic has claimed that China was responsible for a "malicious cyber campaign" targeting a network used for unclassified communication at the Foreign Affairs ministry, and summoned the Chinese ambassador to condemn the incident.
The attacks have been ongoing since 2022 and were perpetrated by the cyber espionage actor APT31, which the Czech Republic, a European Union (EU) member state and Nato member, has publicly associated with the Chinese Ministry of State Security.
The Chinese Embassy in Prague did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nato and the European Union said they stood in solidarity with the Czech Republic.
Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said that after the attack was detected, the ministry implemented a new communications system with enhanced security.
"I summoned the Chinese ambassador to make clear that such hostile actions have serious consequences for our bilateral relations," he said on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday.
"The government of the Czech Republic strongly condemns this malicious cyber campaign against its critical infrastructure," the government said in a statement.
On the same day, the EU said that its member states have increasingly been the target of cyber attacks from China in recent years, and that China should do more to prevent them.
"We call upon all states, including China, to refrain from such behaviour. States should not allow their territory to be used for malicious cyber activities," said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas in a statement.
— Reuters
